


Tea and Biscuits

by LadyAJ_13



Category: Good Omens (TV), Good Omens - Neil Gaiman & Terry Pratchett
Genre: Discussions of sexuality, Female Friendship, Gen, Lower Tadfield, Tea
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-04
Updated: 2019-07-04
Packaged: 2020-06-09 15:23:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,245
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19478686
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LadyAJ_13/pseuds/LadyAJ_13
Summary: Pepper had never intended to further her relationship with Anathema. The woman believed in ley lines and UFOs, instead of just playing at them. Even reinvented as an academic, Pepper still got quite enough of that from her mother; there was no need to outsource.Through the medium of tea and biscuits, Pepper and Anathema find a friend.





	Tea and Biscuits

Pepper had never intended to further her relationship with Anathema. The woman believed in ley lines and UFOs, instead of just playing at them. Even reinvented as an academic, Pepper still got quite enough of that from her mother; there was no need to outsource.

But once Anathema took the horseshoe down from the front gate1, Dog had taken a liking to the witch and often trotted off visiting. This time, as dusk fell and Adam's mother summoned him to set the table, Pepper volunteered to go fetch him.

The door to the cottage swung wide open, all on its own. “Tea?” called Anathema, from the kitchen2.

“I should get going,” Pepper ventured, eyes fixed on a conspicuously-placed plate of biscuits as Dog sniffed her socks.

“Help yourself,” offered Anathema, and that was that. From them on, Pepper popped round at least once a week for tea and as many biscuits as one scrawny twelve year old could unreasonably consume. Aware of setting boundaries, and having read a few too many psychology magazines, she started delaying her visits any time she felt Anathema was getting too airy-fairy. When she resumed, the newly well-trained witch kept her talk mumbo-jumbo free.

–

“How are Wensleydale and Brian?” Anathema nibbled on a shortbread, staring fascinated at Pepper as she dunked hers in her tea cup until bits fell off3.

“Same old,” Pepper replied. Anathema always asked, although the witch didn't seem to have any kind of personal relationship with the other two members of the Them. Adam was a regular visitor, and Pepper made her way through quite some stacks of biscuits weekly, but the other two only came by as part of the foursome4.

Pepper looked down at her tea, mindlessly reaching for another biscuit. She swirled it in her cup, watching the sugar form trails on the tea's surface, but then placed it on her saucer. “I think Brian is...” She didn't quite know how to put it, and fell back on an adult expression with a feeling of disgust at herself. “Growing up.”

Luckily, Anathema seemed to grasp the concept. “I always thought you and Adam might...?”

“Most people do.” Pepper cursed her cheeks, feeling the blush, but blustered through regardless. “I don't think so though.”

“No?”

She shook her head forcefully.

“You're young.”

“Old enough to-”

“Yes, yes, of course,” Anathema interrupted. “I was agreeing with you, not saying you don't know what you feel. You've hardly met any people yet, why would he be The One.”

Pepper winced as she heard the capitals. “I think Adam – and Brian – feel that after all we went through...” She trailed off again, never quite sure how to refer to the Apocalypse that wasn't. That they all remembered, but never talked about. That had taken on the strange tones of a shared dream, one which only sharpened back into reality when Aziraphale and Crowley popped by, like a rubber band springing back into place.

“It's certainly a bonding experience.” Anathema popped to her feet and topped off the teapot. “But look at me and Newt.”

“I thought you two were together?”

“When did you last see him here?”

Pepper considered, and drew a blank. “To be fair, I turn up Thursday afternoons between 4 and 6pm. He'd be easy to miss.”

“Right.” Anathema ducked her head, and Pepper busied herself finishing off her tea. She had to throw her head and cup right back to get the best, squidgy, biscuit-laden mouthful to succumb to gravity. “Officially we're taking a break. Unofficially, it might be a permanent one,” Anathema added, stirring the tea and pouring them both new cups.

“I'm sorry.”

“I'm not sure I am.”

Pepper grinned. “That's alright then.”

Anathema looked at her, eyebrows raised. “Yes,” she smiled. “I suppose it is.”

–

“Any more trouble with Brian?”

The day was a hot one, and all the windows were open to try and get a breeze flowing through the cottage. The boys had gone down to swim in the river, and while Pepper had her suit on under her shorts, she'd split off from the group at four, taking the well-worn path to the cottage.

“Nah, I set him straight.”

“Knew you would.” Anathema took a gulp of tea.

“Told him I thought I liked girls.”

Anathema choked, coughed, and set down her cup. “Well, that would do it,” she wheezed.

Pepper thumped her on the back until she was breathing more air than tea. “You should have seen the look on his face,” she said with a twinkle, then widened her eyes until white showed all around and dropped her jaw in a gape. She sobered. “But it wasn't just to get him to back off.”

“No?”

“I did some thinking,” she mumbled. “More about why I didn't want Adam either. Why I never thought about any of them like that.”

“Well you wouldn't like every boy...”

“Or any boy?” Anathema bowed her head to one side in capitulation. “'Sides, then I thought about the girls at school, and I realised there's one...”

Anathema grinned. “What's her name?”

“Mary.” Pepper wrinkled her nose. “A bit biblical, isn't it?”

“Could have been worse,” snorted Anathema. “Could have been Edith.”

“Edith?”

“Lot's wife, at least according to Jewish people5. Turned to salt.” Pepper groaned. “So have you spoken to her about it?”

Pepper nodded, feeling the blush rise up again. “We're going on a picnic on Sunday. Adam said that's what Zira and Crowley do. Or they feed ducks, but the geese chased all the ducks away from the duckpond.” Anathema nudged the biscuit plate closer to Pepper, who grabbed one gratefully, dropping crumbs all over the table. “Wensley tried to feed the geese once and we nearly lost him. Adam and Dog had to intervene.”

Anathema tried to get the conversation back on track. “And what's Mary like?”

Pepper shrugged. “A bit girly. She likes pink,” she shuddered. “But I figured that's okay. I can eat sandwiches with her on a rug as long as I can then go climb trees with Adam. Or the other way around.” She looked up at Anathema, eyes big and brown. “That's okay, isn't it?”

Anathema smiled, picturing a mud-stained Pepper collapsing on a picnic blanket next to a primly dressed girl in pink and bows. She pictured twigs in Pepper's hair, and her palms scraped from the rope swing at the river, next to neatly braided plaits and manicured nails. She pictured a tomboy and a girly girl. She remembered an angel and a demon. She patted Pepper's hand, and opened a new pack of bourbons. “Of course," she said. "That's totally okay.”

1She'd stayed at Jasmine Cottage, after the owner's daughter had a son, giving him a reason to move down to the south coast and rent it out permanently. Pepper was never sure if that was Adam's doing (he certainly got on better with Anathema) or truly just a coincidence.

2It was a rhetorical question. She'd felt Pepper's arrival and the pot was already brewing.

3It made the last gulp of tea a dessert and a drink in one.

4 At which point, there was never much room for conversation.

5Anathema had been reading up on her Bible. It felt the polite thing to do, when one was on first name terms (as far as first names were available) with an angel and a demon. Not to mention the Antichrist.


End file.
